AMGEN Tour of California Stage Two Finish

Early yesterday afternoon, one of my coworkers and I left work to pick up a snack at a store a few blocks from our office building. While walking there, we noticed a lot of police cars and a blow-up arch and other things that seemed strange. Then I remembered that the AMGEN Tour of California was happening this week and I realized that they were preparing for the cyclists to roll into Sacramento for the Stage Two finish of the race!

As soon as we got back to the office I searched on the internet and found out that the riders would be arriving in Sacramento between 2:40 and 3:15PM. When it got close to that time, I grabbed my camera and headed out to watch the race. Unfortunately, my camera batteries were low and so I wasn't able to get very many good pictures. To make matters worse, my knowledge of the course was not only insufficient, it was also incorrect, so while I thought I was close to the finish I was actually about 3 blocks away from it. I realized this soon enough that I was able to be pretty close to the finish in time to watch it, but I wasn't able to get any decent pictures due to the crowds.

Anyways, here are some of the pictures from yesterday, unedited because I am too busy with finals to worry about making the pictures look better, haha.

The crowds start to gather to watch the riders enter the last circuit
portion of the race. (The course was set up so that after the cyclists went
under the arch, they would do a few laps around several city
blocks before the actual finish.)

The peloton enters the lap portion. Note that the blow-up arch is no longer
there. The wind had blown it over about 2 minutes before the riders arrived
and volunteers had to work quickly to remove it from the roadway.

The crowds watch the live video coverage of the race and wait for the
cyclists to come flying past.

Here is the arch from the first picture, all collapsed on the sidewalk.

The cyclists zoom past the crowds about 1 block past the finish line.

Ben Swift receives the leader's jersey.

Stage Two Podium

Pro cyclist signs a fan's page. Not sure who this is, but I think he was
important. Also note the Chico Wildflower t-shirt that the fan is
sporting. I have the same one!